A Countdown of

The 5 Types of Reading Slumps Every Reader Suffers From

5. The "Busy Bee" Slump
Sometimes, life gets in the way of your reading life (in other words, your actual life). You know that you have a few moments to spare to read, but those are often filled with things like feeding yourself, or, in my case, my insatiable cat who gets into mischief if I don't feed him on time. Once things in your life have calmed down, you know you'll be back to reading, but during this type of slump, you're simply swamped.

Grumpy Cat Accepts No Substitutions

4. The "That Book Was Awesome- Nothing Can Compare!" Slump
I remember having this slump after I finished the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. In my case, rereading it and carrying it around the schoolyard eventually cured my slump, since I moved on to other books, but sometimes this type of slump takes time to get over.

3. The "I've Read This Book Before" Slump
Okay, so you haven't read this book before, but everything you pick up feels like a knockoff of some other book you've read. The solution I've found with this one is to change genres completely- read a genre you normally wouldn't. But don't just read any book of that genre- read the one people like... a lot. Look on the "Best of" lists on Goodreads, and you should be able to scrounge up a whole list-full of possibilities.

2. The "Feel Too Terrible to Read" Slump
There are times in my life I've been much too sick to read. Mostly I've found I get into this type of slump when I'm recovering from a surgery where they've given me painkillers to 'help' me afterwards, and I'm completely incapable of any type of concentration. This may be because I'm mildly allergic to most painkillers, and have an awful itchiness whenever I take them, but I digress. Sometimes, you're just to sick to read- and the only cure is time.

Steven Colbert- Master of Meh.

1. The "Meh" Slump
I'm in this kind of slump pattern right now- I'll finish a book, look at my full to the bursting TBR shelves, and shrug to myself. I'm actively (albeit slowly) reading things, but not at the breakneck pace I was last year. I think for me the cure might be changing genres, but at this point I'm trying to read along with The Martian audiobook version in hopes it may foster better reading progress than forcing myself to read the same page over and over on other books without obvious enjoyment.

Have you had reading slumps before (Dear Lord- I hope it's not just me!)? What has pulled you out of your reading funks?

2 comments:

Yes! I have experienced all of these unfortunately. The only one I think I might add if I was making a list is when I'm reading a book I'm just not that into. It tends to put me in a slump. I do everything I can to avoid reading that book and I won't start another one because I want to finish the first one. But maybe that can come under the "meh" category . . .

Changing genres or books sometimes helps me when I am in a slump. Or just accepting that I can't read and focus on other things I like to do not related to reading. The second is more often how I resolve a slump. They always pass. At least so far. :-)

I agree with the books you aren't that into- it can be miserable to try and read a book you're bored with. My slump, ironically, ended the day after I posted this when I tried to read "The Golem and the Jinni". I read half of it in one sitting. I think I was just choosing the wrong books! :)Thanks for stopping by and commenting, Literary Feline!~Litha Nelle